Abuja, Feb 16, 2019 – Nigeria’s electoral watchdog on Saturday postponed presidential and parliamentary elections for one week, just hours before polls were due to open. Polling had been due to start at nearly 120,000 polling units in Africa’s most populous nation at 0700 GMT, with a record 73 candidates on the ballot. President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking a second term of office, but is facing a stiff challenge from the main opposition candidate, former vice-president Atiku Abubakar. But the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, said after late night emergency talks that the timetable was “no longer feasible. Consequently, the commission has decided to reschedule to Saturday February 23, 2019,” he told reporters at INEC headquarters about five hours before scheduled polling.
Parliamentary elections for 360 seats in the lower House of Représentatives and 109 seats in the Senate will be held on the same day. Governorship and state assembly elections will be pushed back to March 9, Yakubu said. Yakubu said the delay came “after a careful review of the implementation of the logistics and operational plans and the determination to conduct free, fair and credible elections”. It “will afford the commission the opportunity to address identified challenges in order to maintain the quality of our elections”, he added. “This was a difficult decision for the commission to take but necessary for the successful delivery of elections and the consolidation of our democracy,” he said.
Nigeria postponed voting just one week before it was due to be held at the last election in 2015, citing security concerns linked to the Boko Haram insurgency. The six-week delay was seen as a way for president Goodluck Jonathan to claw back votes after a strong challenge from Buhari, then an opposition candidate. Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) said at the time that Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were trying to scupper the vote. A major feature of the PDP campaign this time round has revolved around claims that the APC is attempting to rig the election, including by buying biometric voter cards.
INEC has also come under similar pressure as four years ago because of concerns about the distribution of biometric identity cards to the 84 million registered voters.Three fires have also broken out in three INEC offices in the past two weeks, destroying unclaimed cards and other election materials, including smart card readers and ballot boxes.
By AFP.
Nigeria’s two main parties condemn election postponement
Abuja, Feb 16, 2019 (AFP) – Nigeria’s two main political parties on Saturday hit out at a decision by the country’s election watchdog to push back presidential and parliamentary elections by a week. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) blamed the postponement on logistical difficulties, after reports of widespread problems in the distribution of voting materials.
Yet both the ruling All Progressives Congress and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party blamed the other for orchestrating the delay as a way of manipulating the vote. President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign spokesman Festus Keyamo for the APC said the news was a “huge disappointment” and hit out at INEC for being unprepared. Keyamo called on the body to remain impartial “as the rumour mill is agog with the suggestion that this postponement has been orchestrated in collusion with the.. PDP”. “We have earlier raised the alarm that the PDP is bent on discrediting this process the moment it realised it cannot make up the numbers to win this election,” he Added. “We are only urging INEC not to collude with the PDP on this.”
PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar blamed the Buhari government for “instigating the postponement” and said it hoped to disenfranchise the electorate to ensure a low turnout. “Nigerians must frustrate their plans by coming out in even greater Numbers on Saturday 23 February” and for governorship and state assembly elections two weeks later, he Added.
With tempers expected to flare, and political violence common in Nigeria, Abubakar called on his supporters to remain calm. “We will overcome this. You can postpone an election but you cannot postpone destiny,” he added in a statement.
